Apple Updates Retina MacBook Pros With Better Specs

Apple has updated its Retina MacBook Pro line, with new Haswell processors that edge their predecessors (also Haswell) by small amounts (200MHz), and with new base RAM for the low-end 15-inch model that doubles the amount of memory it carries within from 8GB to 16GB.

The Retina MacBook Pro update is similar to the MacBook Air update Apple issued earlier this year, in that it improves what’s under the hood but doesn’t introduce any sweeping changes to the Retina MacBook Pro line. Apple last updated the Retina MacBook Pro in October of last year, when it introduced new Haswell and Crystal Well processors from Intel to the line, and improved battery life to 9 hours for the 13-inch version and 8 hours for the 15-inch model.

Price points for the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros remain the same, the larger models are now $100 cheaper. Apple still ships the 15-inch laptops with NVIDIA’s GeForce GT-750M, which is now nearly two years old. But you’ll get better value on that base 15-inch thanks to the improvement in the stock RAM configuration (which also isn’t upgradeable after the fact, so that’s a considerable advantage).

Apple shipped 4.4 million Macs in the latest quarter, which was up 18 percent from a year ago and a new record for the company for Macs sold during the quarter ending in June. Apple’s Mac line has gained market share across the PC category (which shrank by 2 percent last year according to IDC) in 32 of the last 33 quarters, so people are clearly happy with what they’re doing with machines like the Retina MacBook Pro, which got a price drop for entry-level models in October, too.